Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is preventable and reversible in the early stages with upstream strategies; however, the number of individuals diagnosed with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is increasing annually. Although researchers have documented the physiological and psychological stressors associated with hemodialysis (HD), little is known about the effects of in-center HD on the recipients in DeKalb County, Georgia. This study described the experiences of 10 African American HD patients who dialyze in DeKalb County. Using a phenomenological approach, the interviews were transcribed and then analyzed for significant quotes and recurrent themes relevant to receiving HD in DeKalb County. The health belief model was used to identify the perceptions and susceptibilities that formed the lived experiences of the participants. Results showed that 70% of the patients had been diagnosed with hypertension and/or diabetes and that 50% had never heard of ESRD prior to diagnosis. All 10 patients reported never knowing that hypertension and/or diabetes was a major cause of ESRD. The study sought to find common themes related to the perceived threat of ESRD by the participants. This study can be used to implement positive social change by instituting upstream strategies to decrease the prevalence of ESRD or slow the progression of CKD in this population, heightening awareness of this disease in minority communities, and implementing a sustainable health behavior plan to decrease the prevalence of the disease.

This study focused on the continued mathematical achievement gap between African American and Latino students in an urban elementary school. An illustrative case study design was used to examine the teachers' perception of factors contributing to this gap in mathematical performance, and what instructional math strategies can narrow the achievement gap. Socioconstructivism and culturally relevant pedagogy were the learning theories used to form the conceptual framework in this study. Qualitative data were obtained from 6 individual interviews with 4th grade math educators, classroom observations, and teacher artifacts. Data analysis in this study included data triangulation and coding, as well as identification of common themes as an important analytical approach to enhance the credibility of this study. Methods for minimizing bias and error included peer debriefing and member-checking, which consisted of obtaining feedback from participants to ensure the trustworthiness of findings. The key results of this study indicated that teachers perceived that 4th grade African American students often lacked basic skills and background knowledge for their school grade. Based upon the findings, the outcome was a plan for professional development training to help teachers gain knowledge on how to incorporate cultural relevant pedagogy, through strategies that include differentiating learning instructions and mastery learning into their classrooms, to narrow the mathematical achievement gap between African American and Latino 4th grade students. Implications for positive social change from this study include providing teachers with research-based strategies targeted toward narrowing the mathematical achievement gap between 4th grade African American and Latino students at the local and district site.

Government leaders have not been successful in their strategies for developing a pipeline of African American college students to address the absence of African American representation in civil service management positions. Increasing African American representation among civil service personnel may produce a government workforce that reflects American society, which may promote equitable and responsive solutions in serving public interests. The purpose of this qualitative modified Delphi study was to build consensus among a nationwide expert panel of government-affiliated talent managers as to strategies for creating a sustainable civil service pipeline of annual graduating classes of African American collegians. The research questions, grounded by Chamberlain's theory of strategy, focused on determining the desirability and feasibility of strategic tactics for recruitment. From 4 rounds of questionnaires, with Likert-type scales, median scores were calculated for each strategic tactic to reveal the level of consensus for each tactic. Consensus-based findings included 6 different types of tactics: (a) competitive and transparent compensation packages; (b) recruiting at African American workshops and conferences; (c) quality and affordable insurance; (d) career training and development opportunities; (e) internships to African American college students; and (f) recruiting from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics program organizations. This study contributes to positive social change by providing practitioners with consensus-based tactics to enable more African Americans to have the opportunity to have a career in the civil service, which may yield a more proportionate, socially responsible citizenry and a healthier, more economically competitive economy.

Considerable attention---both within the research literature and popular media---has been devoted to the heightened risk of young, African American men for negative life outcomes such as early morbidity and criminal justice involvement. Much of the literature has focused upon various risk factors (such as poverty and low educational attainment) for negative life outcomes and is descriptive or quantitative in its analysis. The perspective and voices of the young men who experience this phenomenon has often been overlooked, and thus constitutes a significant gap in the literature This dissertation sought to address this gap in the literature through a qualitative research study which elicited the life stories of young African American men who are at risk for such outcomes. Spencer's (1995, 2006) phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) was the framework through which each participant's life story was analyzed, and enabled critical examination of the manner in which the manifestation of risk and protective factors influenced life stage outcomes. Results indicated that life stage outcomes were strongly influenced by an individual's net stress engagement (the manifestation of challenges and supports within various contexts), the reactive coping strategies they employed to negotiate life stressors, and identity development / acase@tulane.edu

Academic resilience in Black adolescents is a neglected theme in existing literature. Scholars suggest that the future academic expectations of adolescents are an important measure of this resilience that predicts later educational attainment and current academic performance. The current study examined the relationships among parental racial socialization techniques, racial identity variables, school-based discrimination, and future academic expectations. Using cluster analysis, private regard, public regard, and racial centrality (i.e., dimensions of racial identity) were used to identify profiles of racial identity among the sample. The results of the cluster analysis replicated profiles found in previous work. Students belonging to the buffering/defensive profile were found to have the highest future academic expectations when compared to members of other profiles. The results of a MANOVA analysis determined that messages of preparation for bias and promotion of mistrust from parents are uniquely related to membership in the buffering/defensive profile. Hierarchical regression analyses also proved that cultural socialization messages from parents are salient as these messages act as moderators in the relationship between future academic expectations and peer and teacher-based discrimination, respectively / acase@tulane.edu

The Spirit of Friendship: Girlfriends in Contemporary African American Literature examines spiritual subjectivities that inspire girlfriends in three contemporary novels to journey towards actualization. It examines the girlfriend bond as a space where the Divine Spirit can flourish and assist girlfriends as they seek to become actualized. This project raises epistemological questions as it suggests that within the girlfriend dynamic, knowledge that is traditionally subjugated is formed and refined. Finally, girlfriend epistemology is considered in light of Black Girl Magic, a contemporary social and cultural movement among Black women.

No description available.

Black women remain at a higher risk for HIV infection than women of any other ethnic group. Of all new infections reported among U.S. women in 2010, 64% occurred in African Americans compared to 18% Whites and 15% Hispanic/Latina women (CDC 2013a; CDC 2014b). While the literature on HIV risk among African American women is extensive, it mostly focuses on low income, low education subgroups of women or those involved in high risk behaviors such as drug use. Very little has been done to understand the risk for HIV among college educated, middle class women who do not fit into traditional "risk categories." Based on extensive fieldwork in Atlanta, GA, this study illustrates how middle class African American women's attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors related to HIV risk are influenced by their social and cultural norms. This research employed a womanist framework to examine the intersection of race, gender, and class and the way these factors interact to shape HIV risk in middle class African American women. Whereas some middle class African American women perceive their HIV risk as low based on social class, structural factors associated with experiences of being an African American woman in Atlanta, GA (e.g., gender imbalance, geographic location, sexual networks) weaken the protective influence of class and put them at risk for HIV. Thus, findings from this study will help inform prevention strategies to focus on African American women who fall outside of "traditional risk groups."

Early American film scholars often critique the relative ineffectiveness of a single literary work, protest movement or silent film to achieve racial vindication following the release of The Birth of a Nation in 1915. Thomas Cripps, for example, examines a relatively ineffective isolated attempt to counter the notions of White supremacy promoted in the film. This study makes the case for applying a non-traditional tri-level analysis when measuring the effectiveness of such attempts. The paper focuses on efforts to redeem the image and the potential of African Americans after 1915 in the Black public sphere in three concurrent vehicles: the written word, the activism of individuals and progressive organizations and the production of silent films. The study defines and distinguishes between racism, anti-racism and racial vindication. Racial vindication is the method used by the men and women that this study focuses on. The paper begins by documenting how notions of White supremacy and Black inferiority were at the root of America's socio-cultural atmosphere during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This set the stage for D. W. Griffith's movie. The study then looks at how contemporary scholars in the 1910s and 1920s -- writers, visual artists, civic and community leaders and film makers -- attempted to counter Griffith's propaganda through various means. I argue that there is considerable merit in analyzing the combined efforts of these outspoken men and women to attempt to rescue the humanity of African Americans from Griffith's clutches in three broad arenas. My argument does agree with many film scholars that no one single act of racial vindication sufficiently challenged the effectiveness of The Birth of a Nation. We use as a case study the silent film The Birth of a Race (1918). When this film is considered in isolation, it does have a minimal affect on stemming the tide of racism in America. This is precisely the point of this thesis. No prominent Griffith scholar has published a comprehensive study that considers how literature, sociopolitical activism and silent film all worked in concert to combat the impact The Birth of a Nation had on America. This paper does so. It contributes to the historiography of early American silent film and the racial vindication movement by calling for a triangular analysis and validation of the cumulative impact varied forms of resistance had on representations of White supremacy in The Birth of a Nation. Chapter III and the study's conclusion comment on the benefits that such an analysis contributes to future studies of racial vindication in response to artistic expressions deemed to be racist.

The interdisciplinary field of Dance Studies as a separate arena focusing on the social, political, cultural, and aesthetic aspects of human movement and dance emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Dance criticism integrated Dance Studies into the academy as critics addressed the social and cultural significance of dance. In particular, Jane Desmond created an integrated approach engaging dance history and cultural studies; in the framework of her findings, dance is read as a primary social text. She emphasizes that movement style is an important mode of distinction between social groups, serving as a marker for the production of gender, racial, ethnic, and national identities. In my work, I examined the ways in which the African American identity articulates and constructs itself through dance. Norman Bryson, an art historian, suggests that approaches from art history, film and comparative literature are as well applicable to the field of dance research. Therefore, as my main critical lens and a theoretical foundation, I adopt the analytical approach developed by Erwin Panofsky, an art historian and a proponent of integrated critical approach, much like the one suggested by Bryson; specifically, his three-tiered method of analysis (iconology). I demonstrate that Erwin Panofsky's iconology, when applied as a research method, can make valuable contributions to the field of Dance Studies. This method was originally developed as a tool to analyze static art pieces; I explore to which extent this method is applicable to doing a close reading of dance by testing the method as an instrument and discovering its limitations. As primary sources, I used Katherine Dunham's original recordings of diaspora dances of the Caribbean and her modern dance choreography titled L'Ag'Ya to look for evidence for the paradigm shift from "primitive" to "diaspora" in representation of Black identity in dance also with the aim of detecting the elements that produce cultural difference in dance.